Colombia: poor access to health care and violations against medical personnel and services

18-04-2012 Feature

Health care is a right that is denied to many communities in rural areas. The delivery of health services is hindered by their remote location and the lack of medical personnel and facilities. This situation also affects the treatment of the sick and injured. Extract from Colombia report 2011.

Health care is a right that is denied to people living in many of the country’s remote areas. The distance from urban centres and the presence of armed actors, coupled with a lack of resources and facilities, make it extremely difficult for many inhabitants to see a doctor and get medicines and for pregnant women and the chronically ill to have regular checkups.“We don’t have the right to be ill.” These are the words used by many people living in remote areas to sum up their situation.Structural deficiencies in the public health system, including a lack of medical personnel and facilities, a lack of financial resources, shortterm contracts and delays in paying health care workers, further exacerbate the situation of these communities. As a result, illnesses or accidents that would be easily dealt with in a city can prove fatal in these remote areas.

Added to this, attacks and threats against medical personnel, vehicles and facilities have made doctors, nurses, dentists and health promoters afraid to visit these areas, where their work is difficult and dangerous. In many areas, the attacks and violations against medical services continue to hinder the safe, timely access of communities to health care.

The ICRC’s humanitarian response

What international humanitarian law has to say

Protocol II additional to the Geneva Conventions

Article 10. General protection of medical duties :1. Under no circumstances shall any person be punished for having carried out medical activities compatible with medical ethics, regardless of the person benefiting therefrom. (...)

Article 11. Protection of medical units and transports: 1. Medical units and transports shall be respected and protected at all times and shall not be the object of attack.

The ICRC accompanies medical teams from regional hospitals to ensure that they have safe access to remote areas where armed actors operate. In 2011, the ICRC accompanied ten mobile health units deployed in Antioquia, Córdoba and Caquetá to provide State health care services to over 32,800 people in rural areas.

In four cases in which it was not possible to ensure safe access by State health care personnel, the ICRC organized health care days, during which its own medical personnel saw 7,500 patients and vaccinated around 1,850 people against diseases.

The ICRC paid the travel, food and accommodation expenses and arranged doctor’s appointments for 815 people from remote areas with serious illnesses or injuries, so that they could be treated by specialists.